Misunderstandings
by queenybee
Summary: AU- Will a couple of misunderstandings keep Rick and Lisa apart?
1. Chapter 1

"And now Rick, I have just one more thing to say... I love you! I always have, and I always will! " Lisa turned to Minmei, who had come out to see who was at the door with Rick. "Oh, please forgive me Minmei, I may never see him again and I had to tell him. Please take good care of him for me, will you? " Turning back to Rick, with tears in her eyes, Lisa saluted him and said, "Good bye Rick, I have to leave now, my crew is waiting for me!" With those final parting words, Lisa turned and with her long hair streaming behind her, took off like the devil was chasing her and ran towards the base.

Rick was stunned by Lisa's admission of love and it took him a minute to recover. He called out for Lisa to stop but she was already halfway down the street. Her words had freed him to admit what he had been thinking earlier, that as lovely and sweet as Minmei was, he wasn't in love with her and that being a part of the RDF meant more to him that he thought. More importantly, he realized how much Lisa meant to him as well.

Rick started to run after Lisa, but was stopped by Minmei.

"No Rick, you can't even think about going back into space. You've done enough already and what about me?" cried Minmei, holding onto Rick's arm, keeping him from running after Lisa. She had known the moment Lisa had shown up at he door that it meant trouble for her newly reestablished relationship with Rick and she wasn't ready to let him go.

Anxious to catch up with Lisa before it was too late, Rick turned to look at the woman holding onto his arm. "Minmei, I'm sorry, I can't be what you want me to be. I'm a soldier." Gently prying her fingers from his arm, Rick took Minmei by the shoulders and said, "You deserve someone that can give you all of him and unfortunately, that's not me. I'm sorry, I hope that one day you can forgive me. If you think about it, you know I am right, you wouldn't have been happy living the life of a pilot's wife, especially when you should be doing what your're so good at doing, inspiring people with your singing."

Minmei opened her mouth to protest but her words were drowned out by an explosion that rocked the city, coming from the location in which Lisa had run towards. With a panicked look on his face, Rick quickly give Minmei instructions to get to the nearest shelter and ran off calling Lisa's name.

Rick searched for Lisa unsuccessfully in the rubble and downed buildings. Not finding her and hoping she made it to the base in time, Rick realized that he needed to get to his fighter and squad as soon as possible and ran the remaining way to the base.

Rick quickly dressed and boarded Skull One and was quickly relieved to her Max greet him after takeoff. "Glad you made it boss, Zentraedi cruiser headed our way, we think it's Khyron's. We need to get out there and head him off as best we can."

"Thanks Max, have you heard from Captain Hayes?" asked Rick rather anxiously.

"Yeah, she was a little shaken up, but made it to the SDF-2 and launched the SDF-2 to take the offensive." replied Max.

Rick glad to hear that Lisa was safe, gave his team their orders and took off in pursuit of the cruiser.

* * *

Lisa couldn't believe that that she finally confessed her feelings to Rick. She knew that she couldn't expect Rick to reciprocate her feelings, especially since he was living with Minmei, but it felt good to get it off her chest. As she ran back towards the base and the SDF-2, from out of nowhere two missiles went screaming overhead and took out two large buildings under construction. Fearing for her life, Lisa ran harder as additional missiles were fired and buildings collapsed and fires started. Luckily, a seargant driving a military jeep headed for base saw Lisa running and picked her up and quickily drove her to base. Finally reaching the bridge of the SDF-2, Lisa quickly took command, receiving information on the position of enemy cruiser and status reports of the ship's readiness.

Assessing the situation, Lisa knew that the SDF-2 and the SDF-1 were sitting ducks unless she could get the SDF-2 into the air. Issuing takeoff orders, the SDF-2 was released from its moorings and rose into the air and started to advance towards the enemy cruiser to try and protect the SDF-1.

Admiral Global on the SDF-1, opened communications with Captain Hayes. "Lisa, I want you to be prepared to fold if you have to, we can't allow the SDF-2 to be destroyed. Promise me that you will attempt the fold if you feel necessary."

With a shaky voice, Lisa agreed and contined to advance and fire on the enemy ship.

It didn't take long for Global and Capt. Hayes to realize that more drastic measures were needed to defeat Khyron's cruiser. After a quick discussion, they determined the best course of action and Lisa ordered that the fold system be activated. The plan was to position themselves right over the cruiser so that when the SDF-2 folded, a portion of Khyron's cruiser would be taken with it into space, enabling the SDF-1 to destroy the remainder of the cruiser with its main gun.

* * *

As the SDF-2 advanced on the enemy ship, Sammie notified all the fighters to get clear of the enemy cruiser and the SDF-2.

Max opened a channel to Rick, who was shooting down some of the enemy pods and said, "Boss, did out hear that, we gotta clear the area, what do you think the SDF-2 is gonna do?"

"I dunno Max, but we better get our afterburners on and get out of here and let's hope that it isn't a repeat performance of overheating the pinpoint barrier."

As Max and Rick and the other fighters started to clear the battlefield, Rick reflected on the fact that he didn't get a chance to tell Lisa that he loved her.

Deciding not to waste a single more minute in telling her, as there maybe some chance that he didn't return, Rick opened up channels with the SDF-2 to try and see if he could talk to her.

As Sammie responded, she didn't allow Rick a word. "I'm sorry, Capt. Hunter but now is not a good time.." Disconnecting the visual link but not the audio, Rick continued to hear the conversation on the bridge of the SDF-2. He could hear Sammie calling out the updated status, "All fighters are cleared of the fold field and we are 30 seconds from being right over the Zentraedi cruiser."

Rick could hear Lisa's reply, "Thanks Sammie, on my mark, initiate the fold process... Initiate Fold!


	2. Chapter 2

Rick couldn't believe what he had heard but as he looked in his screen that displayed his rear visuals, he could see the SDF-2 starting to shimmer and shake and knew a fold operation was about to take place.

This can't be happening he thought, realizing what this meant, that there was no guarantee where the SDF-2 would end up and there was a chance that the would never see Lisa again. Not willing to take the chance, Rick opened his comm to Max and said, "Max, I've left something behind I gotta go back for."

Max, confused by Rick's comment as there was nothing possible to go back for, and realizing the SDF-2 was about to fold, yelled at Rick to come back as Rick turned his Veritech, lit his afterburners and started to fly back towards the SDF-2.

Lisa and her bridge crew held onto the stations as the fold operation started. She was pleased to hear that a large portion of the Zentraedi cruiser would be carried away to space with them. All of a sudden, Lisa heard Sammie exclaim, "Oh no, what is he doing there! Captain Hayes, it looks like Captain Hunter got caught in the fold, he must not have heard the order to clear out, but I was sure the field was clear when we started the fold!"

Speculation ran rampant as to what could have happened, that maybe his fighter was hidden by a pod or that there was a malfunction in the radar systems.

Lisa, extremly worried about how the Skull leader would survive the fold, quickly ordered that the fighter be recovered once the fold operation was completed. She didn't know if Rick's Veritech was still equipped for deep space and knew they needed to get him onto the ship as soon as possible. Lisa also felt a sense of personal panic to having Rick onboard. One, he knew that she loved him and two, that she would be the reason that he wasn't with Minmei.

* * *

At first Rick was worried he hadn't made it in time but as he felt the shaking of the ship, and then starting to see stars, he realized that he had made it. He didn't want to dwell on what would have happened if Lisa had left Earth without him and couldn't wait to see the look on her face when he showed up on the ship. It was his last thought as the fold operation completed and Rick found himself surrouded by space debris from the Zentraedi cruiser. It was a large piece of that very ship that broke away and collided with Rick's Veritech causing him to hit his head and lose consciousness.

"Fold operation completed, I am happy to report that we took over 60% of the Zentraedi cruiser with us and has started to break apart." reported Sammie.

"Good," replied Lisa, "Please raise Skull Leader and see if he needs assistance back to the SDF-2 and start the recycling process and recover the materials from that ship out there, we never know when we may need it. Vanessa, I need you to figure out where we are and how far are we from Earth, we don't know if any of Dolza's fleet is still out there so keep the ship on red alert and defences up. Kim, I need a readout of all personnel on the ship in 10 minutes and will address the crew afterwards."

"Captain, " said Sammie, "Captain Hunter is not answering, there might be something wrong."

Trying to hide the panic and fear in her voice, Lisa ordered that a rescue effort be initiatated and was relieved to hear an hour later that Rick had survived but was knocked unconscious during the fold and was currently in the base hospital. It had been one of the longest hours of her life waiting to hear whether or not he survived or not, but as captain of the vessel, she couldn't let her personal feelings keep her from her duties to those onboard the ship.

According to Vanessa's calculations, the SDF-2 had defolded near Neptune about 30 AU away and that the return to Earth would take close to two years, given the original journey home from Pluto had taken a few months over two years and having to deal with battling the Zentraedi fleet. Luckily, the warehouses had been aleady stocked for the journey to the home of the Robotech Masters, but it was not a journey they were to take alone. The original plan was for the SDF-2 to rendezvous with the Zentraedi forces near the satelite factory and start their journey from there with additional ships provided by Zentraedi forces. Lisa had no choice but to try and reach the satelite factory and hoped that Gloval and Claudia as well as Macross City was safe. Unfortunately, without the coordinates of the satelite factory and uncertainty of the fold system reliability, Lisa had no choice but to try and reach home as fast as they could.

* * *

Back on Earth, after Khyron's ship had been destroyed, Max had gone to Admiral Gloval to report on what happened to Rick. They couldn't understand what he had been trying to accomplish and had no way of knowing if he survived the fold or not. Until they were able to establish contact with the SDF-2 and determine his fate, Rick Hunter was declared MIA, missing in action. Max , who was one of the few people that knew that Minmei was staying with Rick, had Claudia and Miriya on hand when he had to break the news to Minmei about Rick's disappearance.

Sensitive to the situation Minmei was in, they willingly allowed her to stay in Rick's home for the next few weeks until she could find another place to live but let her know that she could not stay there until his fate was known since she and Rick were not married, nor was their relationship of a duration that would have given her partnership rights. Minmei wisely kept quiet about the visit from Lisa that morning and of Rick's decision to follow her.

* * *

It was late night before Lisa had a chance to visit Rick in the infirmary. So many things that needed her input, review or orders, she wondered a bit herself how she did it, but remembered that she had been trained for this since academy days and had learned much the last few years from her mentor Admiral Gloval. Given permission by the nurse to enter Rick's room, she was dismayed to see a large bandage on his head. The nurse had let Lisa know that there some swelling but that it was decreasing and that given time, the doctors were positive he would wake up. Pulling a chair up next to his bed, Lisa sat there for a few hours, holding his hand and talking to him about her heavy day. She left when she started to get sleepy and before she left, she asked him to wake up soon.

It was two days before Rick woke up. Ugh, he thought, I don't remember getting knocked out because of a fold before. Recognizing the room decorations as a standard military hospital, he searched around til he found the call button and rang for a nurse.

He didn't have long to wait, as a nurse promptly entered his room, only moments after he rang. "Well, look who finally woke up, how are you feeling Captain Hunter?" said the nurse as she started to take his vital signs.

"Like I got trampled by 50 non micronized Zentraedi,"said Rick with a groan.

The nurse smiled, "if you're joking around then you must be feeling better. Your vital signs are good, I'll let the doctor know so he can stop by and check on you."

Wondering if Lisa had come to visit him all, Rick asked, "Did I get any visitors?"

The nurse just laughed, "as a matter of fact you did, almost everyone you know must have stopped by to check on you. You are one popular guy. We had to turn them away since you were in no condition for visitors. We'll let you know if anyone stops by."

Rick wanted to ask if Lisa had visited him, but didn't get a chance before the nurse left. Feeling better after taking some meds and getting some food in his system, Rick was able to take a few visitors from the squad leaders that were surprised to find him on board. After hearing from them the number of days it had been known that Lisa was given command of the SDF-2, Rick wondered why she had delayed in coming to see him and letting him know about it and wondered if things would have been different if she had come to see him earlier.

Rick waited all day for Lisa to come by and was disappointed after dinner when she still didn't show up. He wondered if Lisa regretted saying those things to him and maybe had second thoughts about her feelings for him. Taking the pills that the doctor left for him, Rick drifted off to sleep wondering if he did the right thing.

Rick had been asleep for about two hours when Lisa slipped into his room to check on him as she had every night since he'd been brought aboard. She had been unable to get away during the day to visit, but was glad, because honestly she didn't think she could face him. This was the second time he was hospitalized because of her and she didn't want to see him after bearing her soul to him. It was bad enough that Minmei had been there to witness it, but it hurt when he hadn't even tried to come after her. Lisa only stayed a few minutes, glad to see him sleeping so peacefully, she didn't dare to stay any longer, afraid he'd wake up and find her in his room.

* * *

Rick was glad that the doctors thought to discharge him the next day. He couldn't stand being in the hospital and was bored just watching TV and chatting with his visitors when it was only one visitor he truly wanted. It was late in the afternoon, when the door to his room opened and Rick was surprised to see Kim and Sammie from the bridge in his room. Seeing their smiling faces, Rick welcomed them and decided to see what he could get out of them about Lisa and he wasn't disappointed. They gave Rick updated information about the ship's location and all the things that they had to do. They told him that Lisa had been incredibly busy and looked very tired, but had asked them to check on him and to make sure he was given a room assignment as he was to be discharged the next day. They didn't seem surprised that Lisa had known that he was going to discharged and as Sammie said, "I dunno how she does it, she's on top of everything..it's scary."

Kim showed him the options for housing that was available to him and gave him a choice of being with the squad leaders or with the officers. The other squad leaders were working on putting a small squad together for him, but given his rank, for housing purposes he was given an option. After reviewing both options, which in his mind were both too far from Lisa's quarters, he noticed another room near Lisa's quarters that seemed to be unassigned. Nonchalantly, he asked about the room and Kim let him know that it was available but smaller than the other two rooms that were being offered and that it may be noisier as it was the one closest to the corridor, while Lisa's quarters were further down the corridor away from the noise. Making up some reason that he even thought was far fetched, he asked if he could be assigned to those quarters instead of the other options. Kim, not seeing any reason to refuse the request, quickly updated her tablet to assign that room to him.

Kim and Sammie left Rick's room, giggling to one another, as much as Lisa denied it, they knew she was in love with Rick and the way that Rick had tried to be slick about asking about Lisa and picking the room near her on her floor, made them think that maybe Rick had finally gotten hit in the head hard enough to realize how perfect Lisa was for him. They decided to not report to Lisa the room that Rick picked and hoped they wouldn't get thrown into the brig when she did find out.


	3. Chapter 3

It was another long day for Lisa. The SDF-2 was was about ready to start the long journey back home. The ship was almost fully staffed as most of the personnel were prepping the ship for their departure when the ship folded. Lisa had reached out to each of the teams on the ship and explained the situation that they were in and answered any questions that they had. Those on board appreciated Lisa's candor and openness to discuss the plans to return home. Many on the ship commented on how Lisa seemed to be more approchable than she had in the past and wondered what could have caused the change in her demeanor and attitude.

For Lisa, she didn't feel that she was behaving any differently but in reality she felt a freedom she hadn't felt in a while. Even though she dreaded the first meeting with Rick, telling him how she felt was cathartic for Lisa and she realized that keeping her feelings bottled up for so long had affected her without her even knowing it.

Satisfied with the work that she had done today, Lisa left the bridge and headed towards her quarters for a nice hot cup of tea before going to bed. She was sad that she didn't get to see Rick today but knew that he had been discharged from the hospital and probably settling into his new quarters. She made herself promise that she would seek him out tomorrow to apologize for his current situation.

* * *

Rick had been discharged during the day and with the help of some of his friends, picked up the necessities from the supply room and settled into his new quarters. Lisa still hadn't contacted him or reached out to him in any way and Rick was secretly fuming. He didn't know if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life chasing after a woman just because she said that she loved him. He didn't believe that Lisa would act in that manner, telling him something and then acting entirely different.

Annoyed, Rick decided to wait for Lisa to return to her quarters that night and see if he could talk to her. He had been reading a book in his living room when he heard light footsteps passing his rooms. There were no others assigned to rooms down this corridor other than hers and as he heard the footsteps start to pass, Rick ran to the door and slide it open just as Lisa was about to open the door to her quarters.

"Lisa!"

Lisa froze at her door, her hand still on the keypad. Having Rick confront her was not a scenario that she had anticipated and she swore under her breath. She didn't even hear him coming from the hallway. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned to face Rick and moved forward to greet him. "Rick, I'm glad to see that you are feeling better, I want to tell you how sorry.."

Lisa didn't get to say another word, at that moment an aide came running down the corridor and saluted Lisa. "Captain Hayes, I'm sorry to bother you but you are needed immediately in the engine room."

As the aide went on to explain the situation, Lisa excused herself with apologies to Rick and promises to catch up as soon as possible, while the aide continued to talk to Lisa. Glad for the excuse, Lisa left with the aide, leaving Rick in hallway.

Rick watched the two leave, he smiled as Lisa grilled he aide on the situation and asked a series of questions she expected him to have answers to. He felt bad for being upset with her about not visiting him and realized as the Captain of the ship she probably had a lot to worry about right now. He had noted how tired she did seem, but also noticed how good she looked in her black Captain's uniform and regulatory hat. Deciding that their conversation could wait to the next day, Rick returned to his quarters to get some rest.

Lisa returned to her quarters an hour later and was relieved to see that Rick was not waiting for her in the corridor. She entered her room, quickly got ready for bed and fell into a deep sleep, unaware that only a wall separated her bedroom from Rick's bedroom.

* * *

Lisa left her quarters early the next day and was on the bridge directing efforts that needed to be completed today in order for their journey home to start. All the scrap that could be collected from the Zentraedi ship had been gathered and the final step before they were to start their head home was to deploy a long range satellite that would allow for early warning if anyone entered their solar system. As the satellite was deployed and activated, Lisa made a brief announcement to the crew that they were indeed ready to start their long way home.

Rick listened to the announcement with pride, Lisa sounded so confident in the announcement and many of the pilots commented in his hearing how they were glad that they had someone that knew what they were doing in charge. He spent the day meeting his new squad and familiarizing himself with them and overseeing fixes to Skull 1.

It was late again when Lisa returned to her quarters and Rick this time was waiting at her door. She paused as she saw him standing there with a definite unhappy look on his face. Knowing she couldn't avoid the conversation with him, she approached quietly, "Hello Rick."

Rick looked up from where he had been thinking with his eyes closed. He frowned seeing how tired Lisa looked and knew that she wasn't getting enough rest.

Lisa saw his frown and her heart fell. She had known that this wasn't going to be a pretty conversation and she steeled herself for the tongue lashing he was about to give her and decided to preemptively strike.

"I'm glad you're here Rick, I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am about the current situation you're in and I hope that my unprofessional emotional outburst the last week can be overlooked and that we can move forward and work together like we did before. I will admit that I am rather desperate for your help in training the fighter pilots as many are néw recruits and do not have experience flying in space. Training under an ace like you would be an honor for many."

Rick was confused by Lisa's cold attitude. Recalling that she hadn't come to see him when he was in the hospital and then her rather impersonal speech, only briefly touching on her confession of love as an 'emotional outburst", Rick had second thoughts about telling Lisa about how he felt about her. He didn't know what the hell was going on with her, how could she only a few days ago be crying her eyes out and telling her that she loved him and the next minute asking him to train recruits. His initial worry over her being overly tired was replaced by annoyance.

"Sure Captain," Rick said, emphasizing the word captain, "I hear you loud and clear. I'll do as you request and help out with the training. I have some ideas that should help out. If there is nothing else, excuse me, I feel quite tired all of a sudden."

"Of course,"murmured Lisa and she watched in horror as Rick walked to the next door down from hers and roughly punched In a few numbers in the keypad and entered the room.

Of all the rooms that Kim had to assign him to, why that room? She knew the girls were just trying to help, they didn't know that she had confessed her feelings to Rick and been rejected. Figuring that there was nothing she could do about it now, she would just have to live with the situation as is, but at least there was no uncertainty of where Rick's heart lay.

* * *

Over the next few days, Lisa and Rick avoided each other. It wasn't hard for Lisa to do so as she had a lot of responsibilities to oversee but Sammie, Kim and Vanessa didn't know why she was overworking herself. The SDF-2 was on its way home and long range sensors showed no sign of any Zentraedi. They figured that it must have something to do with Rick and felt bad for putting Lisa in a situation where she could easily run into him near her quarters and wondered if that is why she spent so much time in her ready room.

Rick also noticed that Lisa retired late every evening and for some reason, he couldn't retire to his bedroom til he heard the soft clicks of her heels that always seem to hurry past his door.

Sighing a great big sigh, Rick went to bed determined to talk to Lisa about the situation as she couldn't avoid him for the next two years, the ship just wasn't that big.


	4. Chapter 4

Rick didn't get a chance to speak with Lisa the next day or the next couple of days after. Lisa hadn't been lying when she said that the recruits needed training. Barely any of the fighter pilots had any space experience, that training was supposed to have been taken place while the SDF-2 was docked with the satellite factory. Rick helped the squad leaders with setting up training excersizes and giving feedback to the pilots after their sessions in the simulators. For those that had experience in space, Rick took those teams out for practice runs and drills.

Lisa was relieved that Rick was keeping busy and didn't have to deal with him, she was grateful for his help with the squads and couldn't imagine what she would have done without him stepping in. The other squad leaders were good, but Rick had a way to inspire others and organize others to work together as a team. In recognition of his leadership skills, she extended an invitation to join her weekly senior staff meeting and hoped that he would participate. She was pleasantly surprised when she entered the conference room for her meeting and found him in attendence with a status report on the condition of the squads and their training . She couldn't help stealing glances at him during the meeting trying to assess whether or not he was still angry with her, and at the end of the meeting thanked the team leads for their hard work before dismissing them. Rick thought about staying behind and trying to talk to Lisa but found that he wasn't the only one who wanted to talk to her at the end of the meeting and decided to try and approach her another time.

Lisa was miserable, she tried not to show it to the crew and kept up her facade but it was getting difficult. It had been two weeks since the SDF-2 made the jump into space and others were starting to notice the coolness between Lisa and Rick. Not that things were good between Rick and Lisa before they left, but this was a different from the fighting and bickering that Lisa and Rick used to engage in. There was an awkwardness to their conversations that wasn't there before, each being careful with the words that were spoken, both trying to avoid mentioning their last encounter on Earth. Neither knew how longer they could convince others that everything was alright with the other.

* * *

Lisa was in her ready room when Vanessa came in excitedly, "Lisa, there wasn't any type of radar malfunction, and it wasn't your fault that Captain Hunter got caught in the fold!"

"What? What do you mean, what could have happened then? Did he not hear the order that we were going to fold?" Lisa didn't know what to think and waited til Vanessa brought up a hologram visualization of what had occurred.

"See here Lisa, after Sammie gave the orders to clear the area, Captain Hunter and Lt. Commander Stirling are clearly fleeing the fold zone. All of a sudden you see the Captain banking right and coming straight for the SDF-2!" The two women rewatched the scenario play out a couple of times and Lisa wondered out loud, "What was he trying to do? It's like he deliberately entered into the fold space. Why would he do something like that?"

Vanessa just shrugged, and said, "He's lucky he made it in time if that was what he was trying to do, if he had been a few minutes later, he would have been like the Zentraedi cruiser." Vanessa happy that her radar readings were not the cause of Captain Hunter's unexpected arrival, left the room to leave Lisa to ponder over this new development. She shivered to think what would have happened if he hadn't made it and realized that she had a second chance to try and win his heart and this time she wasn't going to give up. Mind made up, Lisa left her office, to look for Rick and get some answers.

* * *

Rick was in the officer's lounge taking a well deserved break. He enjoyed the work that he was doing with the squads and saw some real promise with some of the pilots. Not wanting to be bothered, Rick slouched in his chair a bit, when he saw Sammie, Kim and Joyce, the nurse from the infirmary enter the lounge and was happy when they took the large booth behind him. He couldn't help but overhear their conversation and was chagrined to hear that they were gossiping about him and Lisa. About to stand up and give them a piece of his mind, he stopped when he heard Sammie ask Joyce, "Is it true, did she really go to visit him everyday?"

"Mmmhhhmmm, everyday, the first night she was really tore up to see him unconscious like that. She must have stayed with him over and hour, just holding his hand and just talking to him, asking him to wake up. " said Joyce with a shake of her head, recalling that night Rick was brought in.

Rick was confused, he didn't ever recall Lisa coming to see him and her name wasn't in the visitors log.

Joyce continued telling the girls of Lisa's visits. "Yeah, she looked really upset about it, she didn't even sign in too when she came in, just rushed in, asked for his room number and ran in as soon as we told her. After that it was so late each night that she came to see him, and the Captain looked so tired, we didn't have the heart to bother her with something so silly as signing in."

"Wow, Lisa must really care about him, do you see the looks she gives him during the staff meetings when he isn't looking?"said Sammie giggling.

Kim defended Lisa and said, "It's not like Captain Hunter isn't doing the same thing to her, I've seen him staring at her too, and he didn't seem to be upset with her. So I wonder what the problem is."

Sammie leaned in to the other two, "I think I know what it is, Captain Hayes feels guilty about Captain Hunter getting caught in the fold. I heard her say something like, "I may have just ruined his life" and she looked sad about it."

As the three woman moved onto another topic, Rick sat behind them stunned with what he had heard. Was it true, was Lisa avoiding him because she felt responsible for him being there? Did she really come to see him when he was in the hospital? What about her cool attitude since he'd gotten there. Realizing he needed to clear the air with her sooner than later, Rick got up and ran from the room in search of Lisa.

As Sammie, Kim and Joyce watched him run from the room, Sammie smiled at her friends and said, "I think our job here is done. We need to tell Vanessa."

Joyce just laughed and said, "I guess the rumors really are true, you three are dangerous."

* * *

Author's note: Hee hee...


	5. Chapter 5

Lisa searched for Rick in the landing bays and the officer's lounge and was disappointed when she couldn't find him. She had to know, what had happened during the fold? Not knowing where else he could be, she decided to return to her quarters and leave him a message. Lisa walked down the hall to her rooms, when she heard running footsteps behind her and turned to see a panting Rick, calling her name. "Lisa, where have you been, I've been looking all over for you." Lisa noted that he actually seem to sound happy to see her and so she smiled at him. "Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you. I was looking for you, I wanted your help in figuring something out."

"Well, can it wait? I wanted to talk to you too and I don't think it can wait. Do you want to come in?" Rick looked at her with a hopeful look on his face and Lisa nodded her head as he opened the door to his quarters.

Lisa was nervous as she sat down on his couch. She looked around the small room and noted that the living quarters were a bit smaller than her space but still decently sized. Rick hurriedly prepared two cups of tea and brought the steaming cups to the table. Rick took a seat on the couch next to Lisa and noticed the slight blush that graced her cheeks. Neither said anything until Lisa asked, "Uh, were you able to get everything you needed for your quarters Rick?"

Rick just nodded his head, "Yeah, they had everything I needed." The two sat for a few more moments in the uncomfortable silence, neither knew how to bring up the subject. After a few more moments, Lisa decided to plunge forward. "Um, Rick I know you wanted to talk to me about something, but do you think I can go first. Vanessa showed me something interesting from the time of the space fold, but I think I need your help in figuring out what it means."

Rick didn't quite understand what she needed, he was confused, he was by no means an expert on folds and fold engines and didn't know if he could help her. "Sure, Lisa what do you need?'

"Well, um, ah, Vanessa and Sammie noted at the time of the fold that the fold space was cleared and we've been trying to figure out how you got caught in it. Vanessa showed me radar imaging from that day that showed you flying away from the fold space and then your Veritech seem to turn and fly right back into the fold. I was wondering if you could tell me what happened." Lisa looked at him a bit anxiously, with a questioning look on her face.

Rick just smiled and told her the the same thing that he told Max that day, "I had to go back, there was something that I left behind."

Lisa was just as confused as Max was with that comment, "What does that mean, I don't get it Rick. What could you have left behind?"

Rick didn't answer her question, instead he picked up her hand, noting how cold it was, held it in his larger hand and asked a question of his own. "Did you really come and visit me everyday while I was in the infirmary?"

Lisa tried to pull her hand back, but Rick wouldn't let it go, "H-how did you know about that?"

"Let's just say a little birdie told me. I guess what I really want to know is, did you mean what you said to me that last day on Earth, that you loved me and that you always will?"

Lisa tried to stand up but her hand was still caught by Rick, tears were almost coming to her eyes and she didn't want to cry in front of him, not again. "I don't appreciate you teasing me or your line of questioning. If you didn't want to answer my question, just say so, you don't have to be mean about it."

Seeing how upset Lisa was by his teasing, Rick stood up. "I'm sorry Lisa , I didn't mean to tease you, I was just, well, happy to hear that you came to see me when I was laid up. It made me realise that I didn't make the wrong choice that day."

Lisa still not understanding what Rick was trying to say, just looked confused and lost. "What does that have to do with the fold Rick?"

Rick chuckled, "That something that I left behind that I had to go back for, well, it was you Lisa. I couldn't let you leave without me especially when I realized how much you mean to me. I tried to go after you that day but Minmei held me back and then the attack started. I tried reaching you on the SDF-2 to tell you, in case I didn't make it, but when I heard you were initiating the fold, I knew that if I didn't follow that I may never have seen you again and I would have never been happy on Earth wondering where you were and whether you were okay."

At that Lisa started crying, Rick pulled her into his arms, "I love you Lisa, and I always will and I want you to know that I would go to the ends of the universe to be with you. I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you."

Lisa feeling warm, loved and comforted by Rick, looked up at him, her eyes shining bright. "I love you too."

* * *

Rick and Lisa decided to keep their newfound understanding with one another a secret for the time being. They wanted to enjoy and savor the start of their relationship without any interference and wanted to get to know each other on a more intimate level before letting everyone else know about them. Lisa was finally able to open up to Rick about how she's felt for him since aboard the SDF-1 and Rick admitted his attraction to her, not only for her beauty but also for her intelligence, bravery and commitment to all that she does.

It was difficult for Lisa not to show her preference for being with Rick after hours. She continued to keep a late schedule, but managed to take a break and have dinner with Rick in her quarters when she could. She enjoyed cooking and was able to arrange with the supplies chief some foodstuffs for her quarters that allowed her to indulge in making Rick a meal or two. Their quarters proximity to one another allowed the the freedom to easily visit one another without being noticed by the others.

Sammie, Kim and Vanessa didn't understand why Rick and Lisa weren't together after what they had helped reveal. It frustrated them to see Lisa still behaving like she had been and for Rick to treat Lisa like, well, the Captain. Not to say that nothing changed, Rick and Lisa no longer fought like they used to and seemed to be more at ease in one another's company, but there was no hint of anything romantic between them.

One night as Rick and Lisa sat cuddled on her couch sharing a few kisses, the near silence was torn apart by a siren going off and Lisa was summoned to the bridge. With a sigh, Lisa pulled herself away from Rick who was still dazed by Lisa's affections.

"I better see what's going on, " and slipped her heels back on, re-buttoned her jacket that Rick had been slowly trying to remove and check her hair and face in the mirror before heading out the door.

Frustrated, Rick decided to follow Lisa to the bridge to see what was going on. He was off from his patrol shift but would head back out if the ship was in serious danger.

When they reached the bridge, although unusual, no one asked why Rick was on the bridge with Lisa. Taking her position, Lisa asked for a status report and was told by Sammie that a single Zentraedi vessel had been spotted via radar and that it was closing in fast on their location. She also noted that their weapons seemed to be offline but Lisa ordered fighters to be on standby to move out and Rick made a motion to leave and head down to the bay were the Veritech's were but Lisa indicated that she wanted him to stay and said, "You've had experience dealing with them and I'd like to get your reading on the situation."

Lisa had Sammie opened up communications with the Zentraedi ship and hailed the ship. Her hail was answered by a mean looking Zentraedi who scoffed when he saw Lisa and her bridge crew.

"My name is Commander Grell," he sneered at them, " well what do we have here, puny micronion females running a ship... I see that you are all alone out here... prepare for your annihilation."

"Not so fast Commander Grell, I am Captain Lisa Hayes of the SDF-2 and I demand your immediate surrender or face destruction. Our sensors are showing that your main gun is offline and I want you to know that we have the power of protoculture and will not hesitate to use it against you."

"Huh, what did you say, I don't believe you. Prepare to be destroyed!" answered Grell.

Lisa stood her ground, "We already defeated Dolza and his fleet, don't you think we can easily defeat you?"

"What are you talking about, Dolza's fleet is unstoppable. I don't believe you."

"Then watch this and let me know if you still don't believe me. " shouted Lisa.

Sammie cued up the visual of the last battle with Dolza and the fleet's destruction which only furthered Grell's anger. "Traitors, zentraedi traitors, to turn on Dolza like that. You will pay dearly for that, puny microns."

"I don't think so, Grell , behold the power of protoculture!" Lisa cut the audio and whispered to Sammie, "launch the Minmei attack." Rick looked on with interest and wondered, "what the hell is a Minmei attack"

Rick had to hold back his laughter in the serious situation when a large holographic version of Minmei singing and dancing was displayed to the Zentraedi ship and her music was pushed through to all their military channels.

Grell panicked, "What is this? What is that female doing..."

"Do you surrender?"asked Lisa calmly.

"Never! " yelled Grell. They watched as Grell gave orders off screen but nothing seemed to be happening on their side.

"What do we do Captain?" asked Sammie anxiously.

Lisa gave the command to ready the main gun and to have fighters ready to deploy. She didn't want to be the first to strike if she could avoid it.

It was then that Rick stepped in from where he had been standing off to the side. As he reached Lisa's side, he could hear Grell gasp,"What is this, a male and a female serving together. This is madness."

"No, this is the true power of protoculture, Love" said Lisa and turned to Rick and said, "I hate to do this to you, but would you mind a demonstration, one last time?"

Rick smiled, "At your service Captain." Rick pulled Lisa into his arms and as she lifted her head up to his, Rick kissed her, making it clear to the bridge crew that kissing Lisa was definitely no hardship for him. Pandimonium ensued on both bridges, and the Zentraedi surrendered, unwilling to fight protoculture less they be tainted with it. Lisa had a security force enter the Zentraedi ship, and confiscate all weapons and battle pods. She assured them that they would be reunited with their fellow Zentraedi and be given the freedom to make a new life without war.

It wasn't long before everyone on the ship knew about the two Captains and everyone was happy to find that despite everything, there was still joy and happiness to be found.

* * *

It took the SDF-2 much less time than expected to return to Earth, only eighteen months had passed since Khyron's attack. The deployment of all the long range satellites that helped establish comunications between the far reaches of their solar system back to Earth, allowed them to contact the SDF-1 and let them know they were on a return course home.

Lisa, Sammie, Vanessa and Kim were glad to hear that Claudia and the Admiral were doing fine, as was Max and Miriya. They also transmitted the names of the crew on the ship and Max was the first to pump his fist in the air when Rick's name was included in the transmission.

It would still be a few months before the ship's return and Max contacted Minmei to give her the good news. The media had picked up on the sad story of Minmei's love being MIA and the interest and news had travelled so fast about it that she had no time to refute the the story. She didn't know what to do, and felt helpless, especially when the military invited her to the SDF-2 welcome home ceremony to greet Rick and the others on their return home. She knew that it was going to end badly for her and tried to explain to anyone that would listen, including the media, that her and Rick were just friends and that there was nothing between then.

As the shuttle came down carrying down the Captain and Bridge Crew of the SDF-2, escorted by Skull-1, Minmei wished a big hole in the ground would just open and swallow her up.

She watched as the band started playing and a stairway was rolled to the entrance of the shuttle. The door opened and looking poised and elegant, Captain Lisa Hayes descended the stairwell followed by Sammie, Vanessa and Kim. Minmei watched as Lisa formally saluted Admiral Gloval and was greeted in return. Breaking with military formality, Admiral Gloval gave Lisa a big hug and said, "Welcome home, my girl"

With cameras flashing, the media watched as the captain and crew of the SDF-2 were welcomed home by their friends and family. The media was anxious to capture the meeting between Captain Hunter and Minmei. The media kept their cameras trained on him as he descended from his Veritech and greeted Admiral Gloval. They watched as he seemed to give a puzzled look as to why Minmei was there but not as a performer. Rick made no move to greet her and they all watched as he stood patiently next to Captain Hayes talking to the Admiral. All watched as another aide descended from the shuttle, carrying something bundled in her arms. The aide greeted the Captains and passed the bundle to Captain Hayes.

Addressing Admiral Gloval, Lisa spoke, "Sir, there is something that we left off the crew manifests and the transmissions because we wanted to tell you ourselves. We'd like you to meet our son, Roy Henry Hunter." Lisa uncovered the bundle she cradled in her arms and Rick put his arms around Lisa in support. Everyone was in shock to hear that Lisa and Rick had a son, a baby no more than 3 months old. Claudia rushed forward to meet her nephew and Roy's namesake. Releasing Roy into Claudia's arms, Lisa continued, "Rick and I were married three months after we left. "

At that point the papparazzi couldn't hold back. Yelling questions at Minmei about the new development and how she was feeling about the news, was extremly painful for Minmei. She never expected that Rick and Lisa would get married and have a baby while in space. She was hoping that she could talk to Rick about the situation she was in and come up with a solution. Rick and Lisa seeing the distress that Minmei was in, looked at one another and quickly moved to flank her on either side.

Lisa give the distraught girl a hug. "Minmei, thank you for coming out today to welcome us home, we've missed you very much."

Rick catching onto what Lisa was doing, returned the sentiment, "We really missed you and your music, I hope that you've continued to perform in our absence."

Minmei seeing that Rick and Lisa were trying to help her save face, just nodded her head and said loudly, "Ohh I have been, and I have a special song written just for the two of you. I hope you will enjoy it. I can't wait to perform it for you."

The paparazzi seeing that there was no drama between the two Captains and the lovely singer quickly lost interest and moved in search of another story.

Holding tight to Lisa's hand, Rick in a low voice, apologized to Minmei, "I'm sorry for what you had to go through, I hope that you can forgive us one day."

Minmei just smiled a sad smile and said, "It's alright Rick, I aways knew you were in love with Lisa, even when you didn't. A girl can just tell these things." Turning to Lisa, "Thank you for what you just did back there, I really appreciate it and umm, if you don't mind Lisa, can I meet the baby?"

Lisa nodded her head and the three headed back to where Gloval, Claudia, Sammie, Kim, Vanessa, Max, Miriya, little Dana and now little Roy waited for them. They were happy that their little family was once again together.

* * *

Author's note: I'll admit the scene with the zentraedi cruiser was a little weak, but I honestly couldn't have them travel with nothing ever happening. Once again, thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy my little stories. Keep encouraging me, I have another little story I want to write.


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